1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of serially transporting a substrate to respective units for rinsing, drying, cooling, application of resist, development and/or the like. The substrate may he a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a liquid-crystal display, a printed board, a substrate for a color filter or a ceramic substrate for a thermal head.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
A conventional apparatus for processing a substrate includes a first transporter for transporting a substrate in a first processing system, a second transporter for transporting the substrate in a second processing system adjacent to the first processing system, and a buffer mechanism provided between the first and second processing systems for transferring the substrate between the first and second transporters. The two transporters, i.e., the first and second transporters, are provided to reduce a tact time. That is, when the first and second processing systems have many processing units and only one transporter is provided to transport the substrate in both processing systems, the transporter is overloaded and reduction of the tact time is difficult.
Although the conventional apparatus is effective for reducing the tact time, the plane size of the apparatus is inevitably increased.